Tens of thousands of individuals are diagnosed with brain/cranial tumors in the USA each year. These tumors are a significant source of morbidity and mortality for patients with these diseases. Treatment involves surgical resection followed in some cases by chemotherapy and radiation therapy but many patients progress despite modern treatment paradigms, creating an urgency to develop new treatments.

Patients with central nervous system tumors have a great variability in outcomes and survival. A molecular explanation for this clinical variability remains incompletely understood. We use a variety of epigenomics, biochemistry, and computational approaches to gain molecular insights that may be used prognostically for patients with these tumors.

We are learning that tumorigenesis can occur in the absence of genetic mutations or chromosomal gains/losses, which are now thought to be due to epigenetic dysregulation. We focus on studying non-genetic mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis, tumor evolution, and immune evasion using single cell approaches and other advanced genomics techniques applied to patient derived tumor specimens. By deciphering the dynamic epigenomic code, we aim to discover new therapeutic treatments and gain understanding in how these tumors develop in the absence of genetic phenomenon.